Bioacoustics

bioacoustics

[¦bī·ō·ə′kü·stiks]

(biology)

The study of the relation between living organisms and sound.

Bioacoustics

the area of biology dealing with the voices and sound communication of animals. Bioacoustics is closely related to animal ecology and ethology, to the morphology and physiology of the organs which produce and receive sound signals, and to acoustics. The science of bioacoustics received official recognition in 1956 at the First International Bioacoustics Congress (USA). Work in bioacoustics touches on such general biological questions as formation, speciation, double species, and the direction and factors of evolution.

In the process of evolution, the complexity and reliability of sound communication increases among animals and a transition occurs from the “mechanical” voice (produced by the rubbing of various parts of the body) to the use of stream of air in the respiratory tract (“authentic” voice). Mechanical voice is characteristic of spiders, myriopods, lobsters and crabs, and insects (the vibrating membranes of the cicada, the vibration of beetles’ wings, and so on). The ability to reproduce sounds has been established in more than 1,000 species of fish (from 42 families); they emit sounds by means of their swim bladders, scales, mandibles, and so on. Terrestrial vertebrates use the respiratory system and vocal cords for the production of sounds. Sound communication is particularly developed in birds, and to a somewhat lesser degree in mammals and amphibians. Sound seems to play a small role in the life of reptiles (crocodiles and geckos have voices). The development of the sound-receiving system parallels the development of the voice in the course of evolution. However, there is no absolute correlation between them, since hearing makes contact possible between different groups of animals—often very distant from each other taxonomically—in addition to intraspecific communication.

Bioacoustics also has great practical importance. The behavior of animals is controlled with the help of artificially reproduced sounds (signals) if the outright destruction of harmful animals is not desirable (for example, in order to scare birds away from airports, where their presence threatens to cause aviation accidents). In the field of bionics, the echolocation systems of owls, bats, and dolphins hold great interest owing to their great powers of resolution, their high reliability, and their relatively small dimensions. A type of bioacoustics, biohydroacoustics, is devoted to the development of new methods of fishing and to navigation.

With over 90 per cent of birds and frogs identified by call, a solution being trialled by Perry and his team is to build a wireless network of bioacoustic sensors that record acoustic and environmental data and send it back to their laboratory in Townsville via a mobile broadband connection.

Exceptions include Dambach and colleagues' behavioral and bioacoustic studies of an old world species Cycloptiloides canariensis (Dambach & Beck 1990; Dambach & Gras 1995) and Andrade & Mason's (2000) study of mating behavior in an Australian species, Ornebius aperta.

Cornell University's Bioacoustics Research Program, which is what Miller called ``the ATOC police,'' the independent monitor of a sound generator placed at the Pioneer Seamount 48 nautical miles off the coast of Half Moon Bay for the Acoustic Thermometry of Ocean Climate project.

These will lead the specification, validation, protection, and use of the results generated by the selected RTD providers expert in Entomology, Decision Support Systems, Bioacoustics, Electronics, Signal Processing, IT solutions, Wireless Communications and Prototyping

Using the science of bioacoustics, KIJINI turns vocal patterns into data points, which it then translates into easy-to-read, actionable reports that everyone can understand and use to support their health.

Before getting to the question of where all these young learners pick up their communication skills, Jill Soha of Ohio State University's Borror Laboratory of Bioacoustics in Columbus points out that researchers are still sorting out what learning means among birds.

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